German condom brand challenges UK supermarkets in fight against STIs
Germany's number one condom brand, BILLY BOY, is calling on UK supermarkets to stop treating condoms as a medical product at point of sale, in support of the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) action plan to protect against untreatable gonorrhoea.
New cases of gonorrhoea increased by 25 per cent in 2011 in the UK with the disease developing resistance to antibiotics. Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STIs) are on the increase with the UK having the highest new HIV diagnoses in Western Europe.
BILLY BOY's Chris Clarke said: "It’s a problem that the HPA shouldn’t be fighting alone and needs action from retailers. If you walk down the aisles of your local supermarket, you eventually find condoms sandwiched between problem solvers such as anti-smoking products and the latest cream for treating athlete’s foot”.
“UK retailers firmly position condoms as medical products but few consumers want to spend any time in this aisle, the in store location enhances embarrassment to the extent that shopping for condoms becomes less about taking time to choose the right product to enhance your sexual experience and more about grabbing the first pack before anyone sees you or worse still, letting embarrassment get the best of you and making the decision to go without and taking the risk”.
"A simple act of repositioning condoms in-store could help redefine condoms in the eyes of the consumer so that it becomes less of a medical product and more of a lifestyle product choice.”
The HPA action plan seeks to address the problem of gonorrhoea's antibiotic resistance as no new drugs are in the pipeline. England’s chief medical officer has advised the government to add the threat of infections' resistance to front-line antibiotics to the civil emergencies risk register.
The gonorrhoea infection can be passed on by unprotected vaginal, oral or anal sex. Of those infected, 10 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women do not have symptoms allowing the infection to spread further. If undetected by a simple swab test, gonorrhoea can be easily passed on from a pregnant woman to her baby.
Clarke added: “Gonorrhoea's resistance to antibiotics is a huge concern for the UK. Normally a gonorrhoea infection is easily treated with appropriate antimicrobials but if a strain becomes resistant it will only increase the spread of STIs”.
“Never has there been a more relevant time to wear condoms during sex. Condoms can dramatically reduce the chance of catching a STI and we should be proud to buy them, not embarrassed.”
